Learn how to form questions, from a conversation between two coworkers who are flight attendants
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Natalie: Good morning! |
| Braden: Braden here. Are you Going to This Year's Mardi Gras in the US? |
| Natalie: In this lesson, you will learn about asking questions. |
| Braden: This conversation takes place at night after work. |
| Natalie: And it’s between Ashley and Jessica. |
| Braden: Ashley and Jessica have worked together for years and are good friends so they are speaking casually. |
| Braden: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Ashley: Could you hand me the comb? |
| Jessica: Yep. (gets) Here you go. |
| Ashley: Thanks. Do you think this Mardi Gras costume fits me? |
| Jessica: I think it looks fabulous. |
| Ashley: Did you know that this is my first time in New Orleans? |
| Braden: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Ashley: Could you hand me the comb? |
| Jessica: Yep. (gets) Here you go. |
| Ashley: Thanks. Do you think this Mardi Gras costume fits me? |
| Jessica: I think it looks fabulous. |
| Ashley: Did you know that this is my first time in New Orleans? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Braden: Okay, so, this is lesson 2 in our Upper Beginner season. |
| Natalie: This is just a quick note about how the cultural insights will run in this series. |
| Braden: That's right. In this series, we're going to look at the 25 richest cities in the USA. We'll touch on some of the places you could work and some great places to go to school if you're interested in that. |
| Natalie: Usually, we look at restaurants, monuments, or touristy places, which we'll do a little bit too, but this series is a bit more business focused. |
| Braden: We're doing this because many of our students either live in the US, are interested in moving to or living in the US, or in studying at a university in the US. |
| Natalie: To do that, you'll need to know a few more cities than just New York and Miami, even though we'll talk about both of them a bit. |
| Braden: That's right. Any of the cities we'll talk about have lots of history and cultural significance. We could easily spend and entire series on any one of these cities. So, we wanted to talk a little bit about New Orleans |
| Natalie: For most people, New Orleans is famous for Mardi Gras and as the birthplace of jazz. However, New Orleans is also the 24th richest city in the United States. |
| Braden: Beyond that, New Orleans is home to one of the largest and busiest ports in the world. It also has major oil refineries and petrochemical factories. |
| Natalie: Because of this, the city has become a corporate center for many oil companies such as – Exxon, Chevron, Conoco, and the US Department of Energy. |
| Braden: There are also many universities in the city of New Orleans, namely Tulane University and Loyola University which are the city's major private universities. |
| Natalie: These 2 private universities also administer New Orleans' three professional schools Tulane University school of medicine, Tulane University Law school, and Loyola University College of Law. |
| Braden: Within the United States, New Orleans is probably most famous because of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. New Orleans is surrounded by a system of water levees which protected the city from flood. |
| Natalie: In 2005, during and because of Hurricane Katrina the levees broke and nearly 80% of the city was flooded. Over 1500 people died. The event and the post-disaster recovery were highly criticized as too slow, ineffective and disproportionately expensive. |
| Braden: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Braden: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is... |
| Natalie: comb [natural native speed] |
| Braden: a strip of plastic, metal, or wood with a row of narrow teeth, use for untangling or arranging hair |
| Natalie: comb [slowly - broken down by syllable] comb [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Natalie: costume [natural native speed] |
| Braden: set of clothes for a specific occasion, possibly meant to make the wearer look like someone or something else |
| Natalie: costume [slowly - broken down by syllable] costume [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Natalie: fabulous [natural native speed] |
| Braden: extraordinary, amazingly good |
| Natalie: fabulous [slowly - broken down by syllable] fabulous [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Natalie: first [natural native speed] |
| Braden: the starting item or person in a line-up |
| Natalie: first [slowly - broken down by syllable] first [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Natalie: time [natural native speed] |
| Braden: a moment, hour, day or year |
| Natalie: time [slowly - broken down by syllable] time [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Natalie: fits [natural native speed] |
| Braden: to be of the right size or shape |
| Natalie: fits [slowly - broken down by syllable] fits [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Natalie: Mardi Gras [natural native speed] |
| Braden: a carnival celebration held, most famously in New Orleans |
| Natalie: Mardi Gras [slowly - broken down by syllable] Mardi Gras [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Braden: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Natalie: In the dialogue, we heard the word fabulous. |
| Braden: This word is used to emphasize or magnify the meaning of the noun it's modifying. |
| Natalie: "Fabulous" is similar in meaning to the word "extraordinary” and can have an extra meaning of "extraordinarily large." |
| Braden: The word “fabulous” comes from the word “fable” which means a fictional story. According to the dictionary, saying that something is “fabulous” can have a meaning that it is mythical or not based in reality. But, I've never heard anyone use it that way. |
| Natalie: Yeah, in normal conversation, the term “fabulous” means “amazingly good,” or “wonderful.” |
| Braden: Could you break this down for us? |
| Natalie: (slowly) fabulous |
| Braden: And one time fast? |
| Natalie: (fast) fabulous |
| Braden: Excellent! What’s next? |
| Natalie: In the dialogue, we heard the phrase "hand something to someone" |
| Braden: This phrase has the meaning of “to pick something up and give it to someone else.” |
| Natalie: The verb “to hand” can have two objects. |
| Braden: For example, “Could you hand me that book?” |
| Natalie: This could also be, “Could you hand that book to me?” |
| Braden: Just remember that it’s “Could you hand me that book?” Not “Could you hand to me that book?” |
| Natalie: You don’t need that extra “to.” |
| Braden: Could you break this down for us? |
| Natalie: (slowly) hand something to someone |
| Braden: And one time fast? |
| Natalie: (fast) hand something to someone |
| Braden: Perfect! Let’s take a look at the grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Natalie: The focus of this lesson is making questions. |
| Braden: In the dialogue we heard the phrase |
| Natalie: Did you know that this is my first time at Mardi Gras? |
| Braden: Okay so, there are many different ways to form questions. In this lesson, we'll look at making yes/no questions and at making questions using “do.” |
| Natalie: A yes/no question is a question that can be answered with "yes" or "no." The most common type of yes/no question is formed by altering the word order of a statement. |
| Braden: That's right. To change a statement into a question, you put the "to be" verb (for example, “is” or “are”) at the beginning of the sentence instead of in the middle. |
| Natalie: For example, "Lucy is driving the car." |
| Braden: This is a statement that uses the verb "is." To change this to a question, move the verb "is" to the beginning of the sentence. So it becomes, |
| Natalie: "Is Lucy driving the car?" |
| Braden: Perfect. Typical answers to a question like this would be, |
| Natalie: "Yes, she is." or "No, she isn't." |
| Braden: Another example could be the sentence, "They are in Brazil." |
| Natalie: Here we used the verb "are" which is a conjugated form of the verb "to be." |
| Braden: To change this to a question, just move the verb "are" to the beginning of the sentence. |
| Natalie: So it would be, "Are they in Brazil?" |
| Braden: An appropriate response could be "Yes, they are.” or "No, they are not." |
| Natalie: Exactly! Okay so, let’s move on and take a look at making questions using "do" or "does" |
| Braden: You can form yes/no questions by adding "do" or "does" at the beginning of a sentence. |
| Natalie: The form of this kind of yes/no question is – Do/Does + subject +verb. For example, |
| Braden: "They eat dinner at 7." |
| Natalie: To change this to a question, just add "do" at the beginning. |
| Braden: "Do they eat dinner at 7?" |
| Natalie: Now, our tip here is that when you use something in the second person - that means, the prepositions "he, she, or it" - then you insert "does" instead of "do." |
| Braden: For example, "He works at a car dealership." |
| Natalie: This is the second person because it's talking about "he." To change this to a question, add "does" at the beginning. So it becomes – |
| Braden: "Does he work at a car dealership?" |
| Natalie: Notice how the main verb doesn't have the "s" at the end. In fact, the "s" is never added to the verb when using do/does in a question. |
| Natalie: That's right. Okay so, Let's review this lesson. |
| Braden: There are many different ways to form questions. |
| Natalie: In this lesson, we looked at making yes/no questions. |
| Braden: And at making questions using “do” and “does.” |
Outro |
| Braden: That just about does it for this lesson. Thanks for listening. |
| Natalie: Goodnight! |
Comments
Hide